Drunken driver gets year in jail in traffic death

Anne Krueger. The San Diego Union – Tribune. San Diego, Calif.: Feb 12, 1999. pg. B.2

A 26-year-old Minnesota man who struck and killed a pedestrian in Pacific Beach while driving drunk was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail.

Jason Burg of Rochester, Minn., was placed on five years’ probation and will lose his driver’s license for three years when he returns to Minnesota after completing his jail term.

Burg had been visiting San Diego when his car hit John Stasny, 37, of Clairemont, while Stasny was crossing Mission Boulevard near Grand Avenue early Oct. 31.

Burg was found to have a blood-alcohol level of .11 when the accident occurred, above the legal limit of .08. Two days earlier, he had been charged with reckless driving when he was found to be driving with a blood-alcohol level of .07.

He had a 1993 drunken-driving conviction in Minnesota and was arrested there in August of last year on suspicion of drunken driving following an accident, prosecutor Jill Schall said.

Burg had pleaded guilty to felony charges of driving while intoxicated and causing a hit-and-run accident with injuries in the Pacific Beach accident.

Schall said she agreed to a plea bargain for Burg after an accident reconstruction expert determined that Stasny, who had a blood-alcohol level of .26 when he died, was the primary cause of the accident that resulted in his death. Although witnesses gave conflicting statements, the accident expert concluded that Burg’s view of Stasny crossing the street was apparently obstructed by another vehicle, Schall said.

Members of Stasny’s family expressed their anger at Burg and the one-year jail term yesterday.

Stasny’s father, Edward, said that Christmas, the day John Stasny and his twin brother, James, were born, will never again be the same for his family.

“Justice? We, the family, think not,” Stasny said.